Courtesy of UR Athletics
The UR women’s tennis team wrapped up their fall season last weekend on October 12 to 14 at the Bowdoin Invitational in Brunswick, Me., tallying up 12 wins in the round-robin tournament.
Senior Frances Tseng started off day one by backing up her regional ranking with a hard fought 3-6, 7-6(1), 10-8 victory over Wellesley College. Fellow senior Haley Brower had a more routine win, taking out Bates 6-3, 6-3. Rounding out the singles triumphs on the opening day was sophomore Rachel Suresky, who took her match 6-4, 6-1, also against Bates.
According to Coach Matt Nielsen, “Suresky found the right balance of aggressiveness with consistency in her singles wins.”
In doubles, Tseng and sophomore Cara Genbauffe had a dramatic 9-8(3) victory, topping a Bates duo. Brower and her partner junior Janice Zhao also claimed a win for UR, running away with their match 8-4.
“Overall, I thought that the Bowdoin Invitational was a great way to conclude the fall season,” Zhao, who had the most total wins for UR, said.
She also commented on outperforming the competition stating that “the fact that the other three schools at the invite were nationally ranked teams shows that we can compete with the best.”
Day two of the competition brought three more singles wins for UR as freshman Molly Goodman, along with Suresky and Zhao, all triumphed in straight sets. In doubles action, freshman Julia Weaver and sophomore Emily Deperrior dropped a heartbreaking 9-8(7) loss to Madeline Stein and Emily Hough of Bates.
Tseng and Genbauffe followed their day one win with a much more comfortable 8-2 decision over Bates.
Tseng spoke highly of the team’s efforts.
“All the girls played hard and produced great results,” she said. “I’m proud of how well everyone fought and I’m looking forward to our matches in the spring.”
The final day of the Bowdoin Invitational saw Weaver picking up a solid 6-4, 6-3 win over Bates, along with another win for Zhao, whose opponent retired from the match. The final win of the weekend for UR came from the doubles team of Zhao and Weaver, who ran away with their match 8-2.
The Yellowjackets’ trip to Maine was their final competition of the fall season, though the team will continue working hard in the offseason.
Both Zhao and Tseng believe the weekend will be beneficial to offseason training.
“We came out of the tournament knowing what we have to work on, which will then help us to improve for the competitive spring semester,” Tseng said.
Zhao echoed her sentiments.
“Hopefully we’ll be able to take what we learned from competing at the invite and work hard during the offseason so that we’ll be even stronger for the spring,” she said.
The team will kick off the spring season on Sunday, Feb. 10 against Division I Colgate University at the Robert B. Goergen Athletic Center.
Shapiro is a member of the class of 2016.
